Restoration of Canadian Scout Car Ford Lynx I, Mk.III No.1726

[Hanno Spoelstra]

Originally Posted by lynx42

I purchased new 9.00 x 16 tyres tubes and rust bands from Queensland ($1,600 for five including freight to the door.) These are not bar treads but lugs which are good enough for me.

Rick,

Could you share the brand and type details of the tyres you bought? The tread certainly looks good and it is a bit different than those "boring" bar threads.

Thanks,
Hanno

[Peter Duggan]

Rick,

I am confident that many MLUers eagerly wait for your updates as I do. Micheal R. deserves credit for the pictures of the lineup of Lynxes, on my thread.

The Lynx 11 reverted to the traditional cable and linkage with springs system for the throttle and clutch. What has been your personal experience with the hydraulic systems?

Peter

[lynx42]

WOW! 500 views in only 7 days. I guess I will have to continue my story.

Regards Rick.

[Big D]

Hi Rick,

Yes, I am awaiting more of your story before I go to bed. Keep it coming please!

[hrpearce]

Originally Posted by lynx42

WOW! 500 views in only 7 days. I guess I will have to continue my story.

Regards Rick.

Yes continue Rick. Some of us with a short memory need the next post before we forget the last one and have to start at the beginning again. I look forward to seeing the real thing in the future.

[lynx42]

Originally Posted by Hanno Spoelstra

Could you share the brand and type details of the tyres you bought? The tread certainly looks good and it is a bit different than those "boring" bar threads.

Hi Hanno,

I will PM Deans email address to you for security reasons (I am sure he doesn't want heaps of spam mail from the lurkers.). He lives just outside of Toowoomba, Queensland. The tyres were sourced by him from India (MRF?) but were actually made in China. What isn't these days?

The brand is "FORESTER."

Lynx Continues Tyres 018a.JPG SL370811a.jpg

This is how they arrived at my place on a pallet.

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The price included the tyre, tube and rust-band and slipped straight on to the Lynx wheels.

Lynx Continues Tyres 018.jpg

Regards Rick.

[lynx42]

With the chassis gone to the sandblasters the next few days saw me stripping and cleaning the rear springs.

Lynda Griffith082013 001.jpg

There was no rust between the leaves which was a great bonus. All the shackle pins showed no wear so that was a bonus as well but the new second-hand lathe was in for a workout with new bushes needed.

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New centre bolts were easy to get so I replaced all 4. Large ‘G’ and ‘F’ clamps did the job well compressing the leaves to refit the centre pins.

Lynda Griffith082013 020.jpg

Regards Rick.

[lynx42]

It is a bit of a pity that we can only add 5 photos per post. I have thousands and have to pick out the ones to use and then resize them, save them and then put them into the order I want to show.

Anyway on we go.

The radiator being at the rear means that there must be some sort protection to stop the air from pressurizing the engine compartment as you drive forward which would stop the fan from drawing air through the radiator and past the engine.

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To do this there are panels under the engine which stop the air coming up from below and help direct the warm air out towards the rear of the vehicle.

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Fortunately for me, all of the panels were there, badly bent up, but all there and I was able to panel beat them out successfully.

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The radiator also has a sealed shroud around it for the same reason. I'll show that later.

Rick.

[lynx42]

More photos of the under engine panels.

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The openings help direct the hot air under and behind the vehicle.

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This dome-headed bit is swung out of the way in the belly plate to drain the oil from the engine.

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A strip of rubber seals the shroud to the hull sides in the engine bay you can see the staples used to hold it in place.

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Some cleaning and panel-beating required here.

Rick

[lynx42]

With the chassis at the sandblasters it was time to start pulling the fittings off the hull. We set it up on two large saw horses which gave a bit of room underneath but did not make the hull too high to work on.

Lynx restoration Begins 088.jpg

The Blitz in the back ground is a C60S, WO-78, No.6 Artillery Tractor to tow the 40mm. Bofors Anti-Aircraft gun, a project for the future (maybe).

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The grey vehicle on the left is a rare one. It is a fully optioned 'HJ' Holden GTS wagon. One of 4 built for GHM executives in 1974. It has all the Monaro extras including a 308 V8, M20 gear box and 3.6 limited slip diff vented guards and full Monaro interior. I suppose you could call it an 'HJ Holden GTS Monaro Wagon', but it was never released as such. I restored it for my No.1 son but he did not look after it and I so took it off him 14 years ago.

Regards Rick.

[lynx42]

First it was a job to free up all of the hatches handles and linkages etc. There was quite a lot of oxy acetylene heat used to do this. I think that every nut and bolt was heated up to red and allowed to cool down. This was to break the rust and it was quicker to heat every one instead of hoping that they would undo like the ones on the chassis. The grey thread protector paste was quite visible on many of the threads and most came undone without too much trouble.

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The hinges were all hard to free up and plenty of heat was used on them. There are springs in the latches for the drivers, gun hatch and commanders hatches so they were just warmed up so that the spring, if it was saveable, did not loose its spring.

Lynx 21 06 13 082.jpg

The handles for the hatches were also seized and had to be freed up with heat and straightened as well. This was done whilst the hatches were closed and the mechanism of the handles could be lined up correctly.

Lynx 21 06 13 083.jpg

The hinges on each hatch and the two door are not only bolted but welded in place as well. I had to remove the doors, but I had fitted them years ago so that wasn’t much of a problem.

Regards Rick